Going up in the World: Class in "Cinderella"
Author(s): Elisabeth Panttaja
Source: Western Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 1, Perspectives on the Innocent Persecuted Heroine in
Fairy Tales (Jan., 1993), pp. 85-104
Published by: Western States Folklore Society
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GoingUp in theWorld:
Classin "Cinderella"
ELISABETH
PANTTAJA
Modern criticismof the Grimms'"Cinderella" has focused almost
exclusivelyon issues in female psychology.'This has been true, not
only for psychoanalyticcritics,who have professedto see certainuniversal psychicdramas in the tale, but also for more recent feminist
and neo-Marxistcritics.2By showingthatthe culturalvalues inscribed
in the tales (such as female passivityand paternaldomination)belong
to particular interestgroups and furtherparticular socio-political
aims, feministand neo-Marxistcriticshave successfullyhistoricized
and politicizedthe Grimms'ouevre. But these criticshave also, and
retainedseveral keypsychoanalyticassumptions
perhaps unwittingly,
about fairytales and human nature which have tended to pull their
projects in essentiallyconservativedirections.Specifically,theyhave
shared withpsychoanalyticcriticsthe idea thatthe power and interest
1. I am treatingthe Grimms'"Cinderella,"ratherthan any one of numerous other versionsof
the tale, because that is the version which has received the most extensive and serious critical
considerationand because my subject is as much the criticismof the tale as it is the tale itself.All
referencesto "Cinderella," then, unless otherwisestated,are to the The Complete
FairyTales ofthe
Brothers
Grimm,
JackZipes, ed. and trans.(1987) pp. 86-92. Zipes's translationis of the seventhand
last editionof the Grimms'Kinder-undHausmdrchen,
publishedin Germanyin 1857. The particular
versionof "Cinderella" recorded by the Grimmsis a mixtureof two oral tales,one froman anonymous woman in a hospitalin Marburg,the otherfromDorothea Viehmann,a tailor'swifewho sold
fruitin the Grimms'hometownof Kassel and who told the brothersa number of significanttales
(Zipes 1987:716, xxiv). This versionwas published in the first,1812 editionand appeared in all the
The motifsand themesof thisparticularstory
succeeding editionsof the Kinder-und Hausmiirchen.
are not identicalto the overalltale typeof "Cinderella"; accordingly,myanalysispertainsonlyto this
particularversion,not to the tale type as a whole, which is comprised of hundreds of different
versions,each withits own emphases and allomotifs.
2. For psychoanalyticreadings of "Cinderella,"see Bruno Bettelheim(1976), Heuscher (1963),
Rubinstein (1982), Von Franz (1982) and Tatar (1987). For feministand Marxist readings of
"Cinderella" and the tales,see Rowe (1979), Lieberman (1972), Stone (1975, 1985), Zipes (1983) and
Bottigheimer(1988).
Western
Folklore52 (January, 1993): 85-104
85
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86
WESTERN FOLKLORE
of fairytales reside in theirabilityto shape young psychesand, second, the idea thatthe modern psycheis shaped primarilythroughthe
differentiation
of the sexes. In keeping withthese assumptions,feminist and neo-Marxistcriticshave tended to view the tales as either
patriarchalor bourgeois propaganda, as a socializingtool designed to
create good little(modern) boys and girls.
Thus, even thoughtheyare politicallymore sophisticated,the feminist and neo-Marxistinterpretationsthat have been writtenso far
continue to feel the same as the older, psychoanalyticreadings. Regardless of whateverideas about historyand power informthem at
the theoreticallevel, at the practicallevel theycontinue to derive the
meaningsof individualtales fromhighlyprivatizedcontexts,contexts
divorced frompolitical,economic, and, to some extent,historicalrealities, and they do this largely because their interpretiveinsights
continue to be organized around the twincategoriesof gender and
psychology.By makinga psychologizednotionof gender theirdominant analyticalcategory,feministcriticslike Kay Stone (1975) have
tended to writecriticismwhich focuses on the personal and sexual
aspects of the tales. In this methodology,the female drama particularly (and often to the extent that it is viewed preciselyas a female
drama) is primarilypsychological,separate fromor, at best,tangential
to socio-politicalstruggles.At the same time,neo-Marxistcriticslike
Jack Zipes (1983), sympatheticto the feministcause, have taken up
this same notion of gender and added it on to their socio-political
analyses, withoutnecessarilyintegratingthe sex-gendersystemwith
the socio-politicalone. The conundrum of these approaches, then,is
that while they profess to deplore the de-politicizedheroine, they
have tended to re-inscribethe veryconceptsand values whichunderstand the heroine's text in private,sexual, and psychologicalterms.
To the extentthattheymake gender the sole importantanalyticcategory,valorize the familyas a locus of sexual desire and psycho-sexual
indoctrination,and separate the sex-gender systemfrom the sociopolitical system,to that extent do theylimitour appreciation of the
heroine's culturalpresence and politicalfunction.
If we are willingto set aside, for a moment,the psychologicaland
developmentalmodels whichhave shaped so much modern criticism
of the fairytale, we can retrievemeanings that lie just outside our
presentcriticalvision. These retrievedmeanings,as we shall see, are
political and androgynous. They place the heroine at the heart of
politicalstruggleand make her a representative,not of the category
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GOING UP IN THE WORLD
87
of woman,but of a particularsocial group. From the perspectiveafforded by this new reading, we can then look back at the existing
criticaldiscourse to see how culturallypervasiveand essentiallyconservativepsychoanalyticassumptionsabout women have contributed
to the privatizationof female strugglein literarycriticism.
CINDERELLA AND HER MOTHER
The element of the Cinderella storymost repressed by modern
criticshas been the mother/daughter
plot. Maria Tatar's (1987) treatmentof the motherfigurein "Cinderella" is fairlytypical:she sees the
twomotherfiguresin the story(the good, real motherand the wicked
stepmother) as two halves of a single figure. She argues that the
wickedstepmotheris the more significantfigureof the twobecause it
is the negativefeelingstoward mother(sexual jealousy in particular)
withwhich the storyis most concerned. In this way, Tatar devalues
the role and influenceof the (good) mother,seeing her primarilyin
comparative terms. Bruno Bettelheim's (1976) treatment of the
mother figureincludes this concept of splittingbut is considerably
more complex. He tackles the problem of the motherfromtwo additional perspectives,both of which tend to abrogate the mother's
power. First, Bettelheim assumes the orthodox Freudian position
whichsubordinatesthe mother'srole to the presumablymore important role of the fatherin the female Oedipal conflict(1976:245-50).
In this scenario, Cinderella's (good) mother is the pre-Oedipal
mother,importantprimarilyas an internalizedimage, an artifactof
the child's earlyexperience of basic trust(1976:257-8). The death of
Cinderella's motherat the beginningof the story,therefore,symbolically expresses Cinderella's entryinto a higher state of maturation,
one which is defined in part by motherlessness.Indeed, Freudian
theorytends to conceive of autonomyin termsof separationfromthe
mother.In a second strategy,Bettelheimtreatsthe motherand Cinderella herselffromwhat could be called a Jungian allegorical position.This reading viewsCinderella as a descendentand/ordevotee of
the once-powerfulHera, Greek goddess of the hearth,whose power
and statushave sufferedas a resultof Christiandomination.Cinderella's orphaned state and her devalued role as kitchenmaidare then
symbolsof her tragic separation from matriarchalculture,and her
finalrestorationto a position of power and influencerepresentsthe
(hoped for) returnof the mothergoddess's prestige(1976:253-5).
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WESTERN FOLKLORE
Despite theirdifferences,Freudian and Jungian strategiesfor understandingthe motherfigurehave one thingin common: theyboth
depend upon/establishthe idea of maternal absence, an idea which
resonatesthroughoutmanyvarietiesof psychoanalyticthought.Both
strategies locate maternal power in a bygone time-either preOedipal or pre-patriarchal.To the extentthattheyview the mother/
child relationshipas thwartedby whatis generallyconceived of as the
both positionsinherently
ratherviolententryof the father/patriarchy,
privilegepaternalpower over maternalpower. Paternalpower is generallyconceived of as present,politicalpower,the power of language,
law, reason, and culture,while maternalpower is conceived of as past
and primitive,existing only in the devalued realm of the natural,
which includes personal, private,specific,affective,pre-verbal,and
even pre-social meanings. To the extent that psychoanalytictheory
understandsthe mother'sinfluenceas an always-priorand primarily
affectiveevent, it is blind to the active roles that mothers play in
personal historiesbeyond the infantstage, in familyor social power
relations,and in collectivehistoricstruggles.The psychoanalyticfiguration of the mother is thus highlyparadoxical: she is immensely
powerful and relativelyinsignificant.Her power is associated with
creativityand origins,but that very gestureconsigns her to absence
and non-identity.In this way, psychoanalysisperpetuates a mythof
maternalpower while at the same timedenyinga realityof maternal
power. Not incidentally,it insinuatesa certainunseemlinessor inappropriatenessto anythingbut the "natural" maternalrole and therefore succeeds in trivializingor pathologizingvirtuallyany display of
rational or self-consciousmaternalinfluence.
It is not surprising,then, that modern criticismof "Cinderella,"
whicheven when itis not overtlypsychologicaltendsto relyheavilyon
psychoanalyticparadigms, has been so strangelyindifferentto the
role thatCinderella's motherplaysin the story.In our post-Freudian
world,Cinderella's motheris imagined as absent despite the factthat
she plays a central part in the unfoldingof Cinderella's destiny.Indeed, Cinderella's mother'srole is far frommarginal: the words and
actions of Cinderella's mother are of vital importance in narrative
sequencing and the overall "moral"of the story.The Grimms'version
of "Cinderella" opens significantly
withthe dyingmother'sinjunction
to the soon-to-be-orphanedgirl. On her deathbed, the mothergives
Cinderella the followingadvice: "Dear child,be good and pious. Then
the dear Lord shall always assist you, and I shall look down from
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GOING UP IN THE WORLD
89
heaven and take care of you" (Zipes 1987:86). In fairytales,the opening scene is always of particularimportance,since it is here that the
tale sets forththe problem which it will then go on to solve. Cinderella's problem is preciselythe factthather motherhas died. It is this
"lack,"the lack of the mother,whichCinderella mustovercomein the
course of the story.The narrativeinstantlycomplicatesher task by
stagingthe arrivalof a powerfulmotherand her twodaughters,who,
in the strengthof theirunity,hope to vanquish the motherlessgirl.
Thus the storyquicklyamplifiesthe mother/daughter
theme,rubbing
salt, if you will,in Cinderella's wound. For just as Cinderella's powerlessnessis a resultof her mother'sdeath, so the stepsisters'power is
associated withtheirstrong,schemingmother.In shortorder, then,
Cinderella findsherselfin need of her mother'sgood advice, and it is
through keeping her mother'sadvice that she manages to overcome
her own social isolation and the plots of her enemies. In the end,
Cinderella rises to a positionof power and influence,and she accomplishes this,apparently,despite her motherlessstatus.
But is she really motherless?Not really, since the twig that she
plants on her mother'sgrave growsinto a tree thattakes care of her,
just as her motherpromisedto do. The mother,then,is figuredin the
hazel tree and in the birds thatlive in itsbranches. Early in the story,
the tree offerssolace to the grievinggirl;later,it givesher the dresses
she needs to attendthe ball. Likewise,the two pigeons who live in the
tree expose the false brides as theyride away,withbleeding feet,on
the prince's horse, and theylead the flockof birds who help Cinderella sort the lentils that the stepmotherthrows on the hearth. In
addition,the fleeingCinderella is said to findsafetyin a dovecote and
a pear tree ("a beautiful tall tree covered with the most wonderful
pears"). Since these places of refugecontinuethe bird/treesymbolism,
it is quite possible thatwe are meant to see the mother'sinfluencealso
at workin the rathermysteriouswaythatCinderella manages to avoid
too-earlydetection.Thus, at everyturn in the narrative,the magical
power of the mothervies withthe forcesarrayed against Cinderella,
whethertheybe the selfishdesigns of the stepmotherand stepsisters
or the futileattemptsof the fatherand princeto capture and identify
her. In the end, the mother,despite death, reignssupreme. Not only
does she take her revenge on her daughter'senemies by pluckingout
the eyes of the stepsisters,but, more importantly,she succeeds in
bringingabout her daughter's advantageous marriage. The happy
ending proves thatit is the mother,afterall, who has been the power
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WESTERN FOLKLORE
of the story.Cinderella's success resides in the factthat,while apparentlymotherless,she is in factwell-mothered.In spite of death, the
dyad has keptitsbonds intact.At itsmostbasic level,
mother/daughter
the storyis about this mother/daughter
relationship.It is about the
to
the
mother's
words and the mother's
daughter's loyalty
(good)
in
influence
the
continuing,magical
(good) daughter's life.
Unlike the narrativesfavored by psychoanalysis,which are about
maternal absence and disempowerment,this tale tells a storyabout
a strong mother/daughterrelationshipthat activelyshapes events.
Cinderella's mother performsa specificsocial functionvis-a-visher
daughter--sheassistsin her comingout. Her giftsare directedtoward
a specificgoal-to help Cinderella into an advantageous marriage.
From this perspective,what is most interestingabout Cinderella's
mother is her similarityto the stepmother.These two women share
the same devotion to theirdaughters and the same long-termgoals:
each motherwants to ensure a futureof power and prestigefor her
daughter,and each is willingto resortto extrememeasures to achieve
her aim. Thus, Cinderella's motheris a paradoxical figure:while her
power is associated at the outsetwiththe power of the Christiangod
and while she seems to instructCinderella in the value of longshe is also a wilycompetitor.She plots and
sufferingself-sacrifice,
schemes, and she wins. She beats the stepmotherat the game of
marryingoff daughters. She does for Cinderella exactly what the
wicked stepmotherwishesto do forher own daughters--shegetsher
married to the "right"man.
Considering the similaritiesin their goals and strategies,the idea
thatCinderella and her motherare morallysuperiorto the stepsisters
and theirmotheris shotthroughwithcontradictions.Throughout the
tale, there exists a structuraltension between the character that is
drawn thematically(the pious Cinderella) and the characterthatacts
in the narrative(the shrewd,competitiveCinderella). The superficial
moral of the storywould have us believe thatCinderella's triumphat
the ball is a reward for her long-sufferingpatience. But while Cinderella's pietydoes play an importantrole in the forgingof her supernaturalalliance, it plays almost no role in the importantpractical
business of seducing the prince. Indeed, the battle for the prince's
attentionis not waged at the level of characterat all but at the level of
clothes.Cinderella winsthe battlebecause her motheris able, through
magic, to provide raiment so stunningthat no ordinary dress can
compete. Cinderella'striumphat theball has less to do withher innate
goodness and more to do withher loyaltyto the dead motherand a
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stringof subversiveacts: she disobeysthe stepmother,enlistsforbidden helpers,uses magic powers,lies, hides, dissembles,disguisesherself, and evades pursuit. The brutal ending of the tale, in which
Cinderella allows the mother(in the formof two pigeons) to peck out
the eyes of the stepsisters,furthercomplicatesthe story'smoral thematics.
Justas thereis a structuraltensionbetweenthe tale's thematization
of Cinderella's goodness and the actual plot, so there is a tension
between plot and the alleged theme of romanticlove. I say "alleged"
here because, although modern readers and criticshave sought to
enshrineromanticlove as a centralvalue of the tale, there is actually
nothing in the text itselfto suggest either that Cinderella loves the
prince or that the prince loves her.3 The prince marries Cinderella
because he is enchanted (literally)by the sightof her in her magical
clothes.What is interestingabout theseclothes,at least in the Grimms'
version, is that, far from simply enhancing a natural but hidden
beauty, theyactuallycreate it. In the Grimms'version,Cinderella is
described as "deformed,"while the sistersare described as "fair,"so
we can onlyconclude thatthe power of Cinderella's clothesis indeed
miraculous, since they turn a deformed girl into a woman whose
beauty surpasses thatof the already fair.Thus, the prince'schoice of
Cinderella can be explained neitherby her piety,whichhe has never
experienced, nor by her own beauty,which does not exist. It is the
mother'smagic whichbringsabout the desired outcome, an outcome
in which the prince has actuallyvery littlechoice. The prince's oftrepeated statement,"She's mypartner,"as well as his obsessivetracking down of the true bride, suggests that he is operating under a
charmratherthan as an autonomous character,and the factthatboth
these motifsare repeated three timesis furtherevidence thatmagic,
not free choice, is at work here.
This is not surprising:the enchantmentof a potential marriage
partneris one of the most common motifsin fairytales and mythology. The motifof an enchantedor somehow disguisedbride or bridegroom usually appears in tales that depict some kind of unusual
3. In his discussion of what he calls "ethical criticism,"FredricJameson (1981) describes the
tendencyof some literarycriticismto project onto a text the values and preoccupations of the
present generationof literarycritics.Ethical criticism,saysJameson,
projects as permanent featuresof human 'experience,' and thus as a kind of 'wisdom' about
personal life and interpersonalrelations,what are in realitythe historicaland institutional
specificsof a determinatetype of group solidarityor class cohesion. [1981:59]
This typeof reading tends to obliteratewhatJamesoncalls "the specificity
and radical differenceof
the social and culturalpast" (1981:18).
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WESTERN FOLKLORE
marriage,eitherthe marriageof a god or demon to a human (Cupid
and Psyche) or the marriageof a poor or ordinarymortalto a member of the deityor the nobility(Beauty and the Beast). The idea, of
course, is that one member,by being disguised or by disguisinganother, can enter into a marriage that he or she would not normally
enter into,usuallyone thatcrossesclass lines. Thus, the enchantment
of a prospectivebride or bridegroomhas more to do withpower and
manipulation than it does with romance or affection.Rather than
talkingabout Cinderella'slove forthe prince,then,it is more accurate
to say that Cinderella, in alliance with her mother, bewitches the
prince in order to gain the power and prestigethatwillaccrue to her
upon her marriage to a member of the nobility.
If "Cinderella" does not thematizemoralityor romanticlove, what
cultural values are at work in the tale? We can begin to answer this
question by notingthatthe tale seems to have a general appreciation
forthe politicsof marriageand a keen interestin the question of who
marrieswhom. Both Cinderella and the stepsisterswant to marrythe
prince for obvious reasons. And yet,the tale seems to be saying,not
just anyone can marrya prince.Only someone special,like Cinderella
can. We are meant to believe thatmarriageto a prince is Cinderella's
rightfuldestiny,whileitis not the rightfuldestinyof the sisters.Why?
To answer this question, we need to look beyond the text to larger
historicalissues at stake in the tales as a whole.
FEUDALISM VS. THE BOURGEOISIE
"The milieu of the fairytales reflectsfeudal agrarian conditions,
and the charactersare either of the nobility,peasantry,or thirdeswritesJack Zipes (1983). "Though it is clear that the
tate (burgher),"
classical fairytale is stamped by feudalism," Zipes continues, "the
narrativeperspective... fuses a peasant world view withthe demoof the rising-bourgeoisie"(148-9). Zipes concratic-humanitarianism
vincinglyargues thatfairytales played an importantrole in the rise of
the bourgeoisie. Calling the fairytale "one of the cornerstonesof our
bourgeois heritage,"Zipes (1983) characterizesthe genre as "an institutionalizeddiscoursewithmanipulationas one of itscomponents"
(10). The fairytale's discourse was aimed specificallyat "socializing
childrento meet definitivenormativeexpectationsat home and in the
public sphere" (9). Certainly, this seems to have been the case.
Throughout the nineteenthcentury,the Grimms'and a wide variety
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of other folktalecollectionswere widelypublished and circulatedin
Europe and America, and the popularityof the fairytale grew to
amazing proportions.By the 1870s, the tales were routinelyincluded
in primersand educational anthologiesfor children throughoutthe
western world. By the beginning of the twentiethcentury, the
was outsold only by the Bible in
Grimms' Kinder-undHausmdirchen
to
hold
this
continues
position) (Zipes 1987:xxix).
Germany (it
This period, during which the fairytale became a virtualliterary
institution,also saw massivesocial and economic shifts,such as rapid
industrializationand urbanization,as well as the spread of bourgeois
culturalhegemony.Fairytales played an importantpart in thistransformationof society. In Germany, for example, the fairytale was
presumed to speak in the voice of the true German folk. In their
alleged timelessnessand culturalauthority,it was supposed thatfairy
tales could impart the true German folk-soulto the new German
people, people whose lifestylehad become radicallydisjointed from
the cultural past. In meeting this challenge, however,the fairytale
had to contain a fundamentalparadox. It was supposed to be exotic,
to speak for and contain what was most "other"to the culturalexperience of the newlyindustrializedworld,but it was also supposed to
contain only the mostordinaryand expectable culturalvalues, values
whichcould assistin the workof correctlysocializinglarge groups of
bourgeois boys and girls.Thus, while the fairytale was valued preciselybecause it was so obviouslynotbourgeois,it was expected at the
same time to be pre-eminentlybourgeois. Perhaps the most interesting and problematicaspect of the fairytale is this dual agenda: its
need to preserve past cultural experience (including the often contradictorymoral and social positionsof both the "folk"and the feudal
lords) and its goal of helping to create a verydifferentpresent.
This complicated agenda does not come off withouta hitch; indeed, the tales oftenshow the strainof such a heavy ideological burden. Many criticshave pointed tojarring dissonanceswithinthe tales,
places of conflictbetween past and present values and among folk,
bourgeois, and aristocratickinds of experience. In some cases, the
ideological ground of the tales is so shiftingthatthe tale deliverson its
cultural mandate only imperfectly,with the result that bourgeois
childrenend up being educated in ideals thatare distinctlyun-bourgeois. "Cinderella" is perhaps one of the mostinterestingexamples of
a tale that manages to blend its exoticismand bourgeois ordinariness in ways that slip the ideological yoke of the fairytale as literary
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WESTERN FOLKLORE
institution.In "Cinderella,"the discordbetweenfeudal and bourgeois
values, attitudes,and aestheticsis overtlythematizedin the conflict
between Cinderella and her mother and the stepsistersand their
mother,only in "Cinderella" it is the aristocraticorder, not the new
bourgeoisorder,whichis conceivedof as superior.Unlike manyother
tales which reward the cunning upstart,"Cinderella" prizes innate
nobilityover striving,and reservesthe happy ending forthe daughter
of the "pure" past instead of the daughters of the aspiring middle
class.
It is in the differencebetween Cinderella and the sistersthat the
fairytale turnsitsideological screw,and thisdifferenceis fundamentallya class difference.Cinderella is the true bride; the stepsistersare
ambitious deceivers. Cinderella belongs at the court; the sistersare
interlopersthere.Cinderella's marriageto the prince is her rightand
fittingdestiny,while, in the very brutalityand desperation of their
manipulations,the stepsistersshow thattheyhave no legitimateclaim
to the marriage they seek. They are coarse, petty,and ambitious,
emptyof the innate grace thatmarksthe gentility.The anxietyof the
tale lies in the possibilitythat the prince mightmarryone of these
women, that class distinctions,here representedas inborn character
traits,could be blurred or erased. Such a marriagewould change the
make-up of the rulinggroup, pollutingit withthe wrongblood. This
is exactlywhatthe sisterswant: to substitutethemselvesforCinderella
and therebyto usurp a higherclass position.They acquire a foothold
in Cinderella's home, but they are not satisfied.They proceed to
demote and disguise Cinderella: they disrobe her, give her old
clothes,set her to do the coarse and menial workof the class beneath
them, and give her a generic name, a name that belies specialness.
What's more, theyforbidCinderella to go to the king'sfestival.Since
the festivalis the place thathas been designated for the king'sson to
choose a bride, excluding Cinderella from it is much more than a
pettymeanness: it is an attemptto interferein aristocraticmarriage
and kinship rituals. For, by keeping the true bride away from the
festival,the stepsistershope to be able to substituteone of themselves
in her place and thus gain entryto halls of power fromwhich they
were previouslyexcluded. But the storyclearlysets this rebellion in
the "proper" politicaland moral lightby makingthe stepsisterscoarse
and reprehensible,by making theirambitiousgyrationsdemeaning,
abhorrent.By showingthat
and in the case of their self-mutilation,
there is no lengthto which theywill not go, the storytreatsthem as
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morallyand sociallyinferior,thusre-inscribing(or inventing?)classist
notions about the shrill,opportunistic,and ambition-drivenmiddle
class. By maintaining--indeed,by insistingon-the differencebetweenCinderella and the sisters,the fairytale speaks out againstbourgeois culturalhegemony.
"Cinderella" appears to be one tale, therefore,in whichthe narrative perspectiveis more feudal than middle class. In thisrespect,it is
similar to a tale like "The Goose Girl" which upholds the (lawful)
interestsof the aristocraticprotagonistagainst the (unjust) claims of
an ambitiousservant.In "The Goose Girl,"the daughter of a queen
is kept frommarryinga prince by her handmaid, who disguises her
and takes her place at the wedding. Later, however, through the
absent mother'smagical help, the real princess,now a mere "goose
girl," is able to expose the imposterand accede to the throne. Not
incidentally,the usurpingservantis thenmade to suffera horrendous
execution, which, according to the moral logic of the fairytale, is
conceived of as just. The true bride/falsebride theme of thisstoryis
clearly related to class conflict.To a great extent, it is their class
identitieswhichmake one bride "true"and the other"false." By making the protagonistpure and good and givingher magical power and
by making the aspiring servantcoarse and schemingand depriving
her of supernaturalhelp, the fairytale clearlyindicateswhose claims
and grievancesit considersrightful.In thisway,it naturalizesitsown
ideological position,taking it out of the realm of the socio-political
and puttingit into the realm of the moral and religious.
"Cinderella" participatesin these same thematicswhile at the same
time displacingthe argumentfroman aristocratic/working
class conflictto a conflictenacted withinthe ranks of the bourgeoisie. As the
"daughter of a rich man," Cinderella is a middle class girl, and so
presumably are the sisters.Nevertheless,as her father'sbiological
(rather than adopted) daughter and as part of his firstfamily,Cinderella's claim to social prominence is portrayedas more just and
defensiblethan thatof the sisters,who appear in the storyas socially
displaced persons. As relative newcomers to the scene and with an
indeterminatepaternity,the sistersplay the role of parvenue to Cinderella's role of genteel-bourgeois.What is mostinterestingabout the
intra-classconflictof "Cinderella" is the wayitreplicatesthe termsand
values of the princess/servant
conflictenacted in "The Goose Girl"
and othertales. Though Cinderella is not an actual princess,she takes
on the salient characterologicalfeature of the aristocracy-i.e., its
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WESTERN FOLKLORE
honor or innate virtue-and, in so doing, she reinscribesthe same
classistnotions which could conceivablybe used against herself.As
Michael McKeon (1987) points out, the concept of honor served for
centuriesas a powerfulideological tool for preservingthe traditional
social order. On one hand, says McKeon, the possession of honor
correspondsto the possessionof outwardpropertiessuch as ancestry,
wealth,and politicalpower, but, more importantly,
honoris an essentialand inwardproperty
of itspossessor,thatwhich
theconditional
or extrinsic
of honorexistto signify.
In this
signifiers
respect,honoris equivalentto an internalelementof "virtue."The
notionofhonoras a unityofoutwardcircumstance
and inwardessence
is themostfundamental
for
the
hierarchical
stratification
justification
of societyby status,and it is so fundamental
as to be largelytacit.
[1987:131]
In thissystem,virtueis an inheritedcharacteristic
thatindeliblymarks
the nobility,separatingthem fromthe lower ranks. Thus, continues
McKeon, "the social order is not circumstantialand arbitrary,but
corresponds to and expresses an analogous, intrinsicmoral order"
(1987:131).
This naturalizationof aristocraticpower is used by the fairytale to
defend the rightsof the aristocracyagainst the workingclass ("The
Goose Girl") and the genteel-bourgeoisagainst the nouveau-riche
("Cinderella"). "The Goose Girl" and "Cinderella" are alike in that
they are designed to assuage upper-class fears about the risingand
clamourous lower classes who would substitutetheir coarse and
scheming daughters for the "true bride," the bride whose seeming
lack of ambitionand anxietyis the markof a highersocial rank.Thus,
despite the factthatCinderella is a middle class protagonist,the narrativeperspectiveof the tale is more feudal than bourgeois. By making Cinderella, who internalizesaristocraticvalues, so much more
preferableto the sisters,who exhibitoffensivelower class traits,the
tale perpetuatestraditionalideas about characterand status.It valorizes and perpetuatesmanyof the exclusionaryand elitistpracticesof
the feudal system.
To the extent that the story'sovert politicalcontentis about the
preservationof a pure aristocraticor elite class, the story'svalues are
actuallyhistoricallypriorto middle class ideas of romanticlove, sexual
attraction,and/orfamilyromance. As Anita Levy (1989) points out,
conceptsof blood and alliance are integralto kinshiparrangementsin
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GOING UP IN THE WORLD
97
pre-modernsocieties,while concepts of gender and sexuality(as we
understandthem) are not fullyoperativeuntilmodern times.In feudal times,especiallyamong the elite, endogamy is prized over exogamy. Members of the elite marryeach other. Marriage to someone
who is likeoneself is the way that aristocraticand noble familylines
remain "pure." The purityof the blood is the salient featureof the
individual,and the marriageof pure aristocraticto pure aristocraticis
the highestgood because it preservesthe aristocraticpower structure
and, at the same time,excludes otherclasses. An unsullied blood line
retained its almost magical power no matterwhat gender the person
mightbe. Levy writesthat,in the aristocraticcommunity,
wereone and thesame.Kinshipand thesexual
Kinshipand kingship
practicesassociatedwithitwerea formof powerthatdetermined
politicalalliancesas wellas enmities.
The stability
and longevity
ofaristocraticrule,moreover,
ofitsancestry
werepredicated
upontheantiquity
and theuniquecharacterof itsmarriagealliances.Mostimportantly,
wereunifiedwithin
thearistocratic
social
... thesexualand thepolitical
order.Based as it was in theprinciplesof unityand identity,
kinship
than it did to the
paid less heed to the logic of genderdifference
based purityof the individualand the culturalbody.
metaphysically
(72).
Since feudal marriageswere stipulatedprimarilyaccording to sociopoliticalconsiderations,the concepts of romanticlove and/orsexual
attractiveness
were not as pervasiveas theyare now, and the language
of marriage and kinshiphad less to do withlove and gender than it
did withlineage and power.
In Cinderella, we have a pre-modern or early modern figure,a
figurewho stillexistsin a unifiedsexual and politicalsystem,a figure
who has not yet experienced the disjunction of psycho-sexualand
socio-politicalfact.The attractionof her storystemslargelyfromthe
factthatit gives us access to thistime,a timebefore sexual attraction
and romantic love became dominant forces in kinship rituals and
thus in the organization of society.The figure of Cinderella is attractivebecause it speaks to us of the now-rarepossibilityof experiencing personal fulfillmentand political ascendancy in one unified
(and moral) act. For Cinderella, sex and power cohere without
moral qualm or cognitivedissonance. In modern bourgeois life,on
the otherhand, exogamy is prized over endogamy: to marryup is the
highestgood, and to thisend the middle class fetishizesgender, sexual attractiveness,and romanticlove. Ideally, bourgeois sexualityis
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98
WESTERN FOLKLORE
supposed to functiononlyin the realm of the personal and apolitical,
into the
but in practiceit is pressed distressinglyand contradictorily
service of socio-politicalgain. The stepmotherand stepsistersintroduce these new conceptsand practicesinto Cinderella's "pure" world
of blood and lineage, and the tale records the clash of the two different sex-powersystemsas theyco-existfor a momentin one family.
The differencebetween the two systemsis most clearlydelineated
in the story'streatmentof clothes. From the time that Cinderella is
disrobed by the sisters,re-robedby her mother,and then found to fit
the magic slipper, clothes are an importantmeans by which class
identityis both hidden and revealed. When the sisterswantto demote
Cinderella, theytake away her fineclothes,but the clothesthat then
magically(re)appear are far bettereven than they.Not only do they
re-establishher class identity,theyreveal what the storyconceives of
as a metaphysical truth-the "natural" superiorityof the higher
ranks.The returnof a stunningCinderella sends the politicalmessage
that what societywould take away, God and magic will always again
provide. Unlike the clothes she startedwith,Cinderella's God-given
clothesare beyond interferenceor duplication.Social interloperscannot take them away. Imposters cannot copy them. As long as the
powers thatbe provide clotheslike these, "rightful"class distinctions
will persist.Thus, for the privilegedclass, fineclothesreveal "truth";
theyare a means of maintainingthe statusquo. Conversely,for the
aspiringclass, clotheshide identity;theyare a way of disruptingand
manipulatingsocial identity.The sisters'beautifuldresses are a disguise. They deceive, like costumes.The sisters'clotheshave not only
a negative function (to hide their identities),but also a positive
function-to seduce. The sistersdeck themselvesout to amplifytheir
sexual attractiveness.In this way, theyhope to gain through sexual
of blood or chardifferencewhattheycannotclaim throughsimilarity
acter. Thus, clothes are a politicaltool of the petit-bourgeoisie:they
are a means of spreading and valorizinga new cultural hegemony,
one fraughtwitha sense of its own illegitimacy.In thisscheme, conand romanticlove are woven
cepts of sexuality,sexual attractiveness,
of
and
into
the
service
politicalgain.
pressed
together
Nowhere is petit-bourgeois strategizing more rigorously condemned than in the finalstruggleover Cinderella's golden shoe. The
sisters,who are said to have "beautifulfeet," find nonetheless that
their feet are too big for the slipper. Under the directionof their
mother,who tellsthem,"Once you become queen, you won't have to
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GOING UP IN THE WORLD
99
walk anymore" (Zipes 1987:91), one cuts off her toe and the other
cuts offher heel. The two pigeons sittingin the hazel tree directthe
prince's attentionto the blood oozing fromthe shoes, sayingof each
sisterin turn,"There's blood all over, and her foot'stoo small./She's
not the bride you met at the ball" (Zipes 1987:91). So the trickis
exposed, and the sistersare returnedto theirmother. In the drama
surroundingthe shoe, the petit-bourgeoispracticeof sexual primping
is carried to the extremeand exposed as monstrousand self-hating.
Its root in class ambition is clearlyshown, and the fairytale brings
both ambitionand seduction to a fittingly
patheticend in self-mutilation and defeat. The factthatthe sistershave mutilatedthemselves
makes iteasier forus to accept theblindnessthatCinderellainflictson
them at the end of the story.Their final,brutal punishmentcan then
be understood, not as a sudden and reprehensibleexcess of power,
but as a mere elaboration of theirown immorality.We are meant to
understand that those who would change themselvesto entice the
other may be changed byanother. Mutilationby self or other is the
In thisway the tale shrouds a
logical outcome of seduction/ambition.
politicalmessage inside a moral one: the sisters'blindness is seen as
the symbol and culminationof their own tendencyto self-destruction; it refersonly obliquelyto Cinderella's power. By drawingupon
the well-knownthematicsof the moral universe,the tale accomplishes
a dual political aim of legitimatingviolence against outsiders and
maintaining its own fictionof moral concern and political noninvolvement.In soundly defeating the sisters,and insistingon the
essential differencebetween the true and the false brides, the fairy
tale naturalizesclass divisions,re-statingthe necessityof maintaining
the statusquo against social pressuresbrought to bear on it.
OUR "CINDERELLA"
When we compare the modern, cinematized version of "Cinderella" to the Grimms'tale, we finda subtleby unmistakablechange in
narrativeemphasis and perspective.The heroine is no longer a true
bride threatenedby some coarse imposters,but a poor girl who triumphs over the glamorous and corruptwomen of the monied class.
Thus, the tale defends, not the rightof the genteel-bourgeoisto its
separate social space, but the rightof the petit-bourgeoisto aspire and
ascend. The petit-bourgeoisare imagined, not as potentialusurpers
of power, but as the dispossessed victimsof power. The social elitism
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100
WESTERN FOLKLORE
of the Grimms' tale is overshadowed, though not replaced, by the
more democratic-bourgeoisidealismof the 1949 Disney filmversion.4
Disney's"popularization"of the folktale,in whichthe class dynamis an instance of what Roland Barics shiftslightlybut significantly,
thes (1972:140) describes as bourgeois ideology's "penetration"into
the "intermediate classes" and the subsequent "degradation" of
"bourgeois truths."Like the Grimms' version, the popular Disney
storydoes the workof haute-bourgeoisculture,but it does itby transformingthe original bourgeois ideological materialsinto what Barthes calls "petit-bourgeoisnorms." Barthes explains,
normsare the residueof bourgeoisculture,theyare
Petit-bourgeois
combourgeoistruthswhichhave becomedegraded,impoverished,
archaic,or shallwe sayout of date?... [T]he big
mercialized,
slightly
in a classritual(thediswhichoriginates
weddingof thebourgeoisie,
can
bear
no
relationto theeconomic
of
and
wealth),
consumption
play
statusof thelowermiddleclass:butthroughthepress,thenews,and
it slowlybecomesthe verynormas dreamed,thoughnot
literature,
couple.[1972:140-1]
actuallylived,of thepetit-bourgeois
While the Grimms'versioncan be read as a defense or rationalization
of upper class cohesiveness,the Disney versioncan be understood as
the lower class's dream of participationin haute-bourgeoisrituals.
Thus, the modern Cinderella storyis not much more than a wishThe real protagonistis not Cinderella at all but the petitfulfillment.
reader
who, with the help of the story,is able to do in
bourgeois
imaginationwhat she is much less likelyto do in fact: she is able to
penetrate the ranks of the bourgeoisie. Seeing the cinematizedversion of "Cinderella" (or reading any one of a number of modern
variantsof the tale directedtoward the lower classes) is virtuallysynonymous with dreaming of being Cinderella, and the dream itself
becomes a degraded formof participationin the dominant culture.
of Cinderella to those who can never
The bourgeoisie offersthe story
and
the
be
a
Cinderella,
reading of the storyis a substitutive
really
ritualfor cultural groups denied participationin the actual ritual.
4. The Disney "Cinderella" is based on the Perrault(1982) versionof the tale, firstpublished in
France in 1697. The factthatDisneychose to adapt the more watered-downPerraultversionrather
than the Grimms'versioncould be interpretedas an indicationof the modern era's greaterintolerance for female power. For a furtherdiscussionof the differencebetween the Grimms'and the
Disney "Cinderella,"see Yolen (1982). And fora discussionof the differencebetweenthe Perrault
and the Grimms'"Cinderella," see Bettelheim(1976:251-2).
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GOING UP IN THE WORLD
101
Of course, the reader's dream of participationin haute-bourgeois
rituals both soothes and exacerbates her painful awareness of her
actual social exclusion fromsuch rituals.The petit-bourgeoisreader
of "Cinderella" findsherselfaffirmedand negated in complex ways
which ultimatelyserve to enlist her support for the statusquo. Disney's Cinderella, for example, fulfillsher dream by being exactlythe
opposite of what we would expect someone in her position to be.
Forced to do all the hard work and abused by all those around her,
she is neitherangry,bitter,depressed, nor revolutionary.She is, in
short,remarkablyatypical,and she is chosen by the prince precisely
for this reason. In the logic of the story,petit-bourgeoisliberation
depends upon the repression of petit-bourgeoisclass consciousness.
The tale extolls the virtuesof a falselytranscendentindividual identityat the same time that it requires the denial of an authenticclass
identity.A reader who obliginglydreams of being Cinderella, then,
signs a complicated social contractin which she agrees to carrythe
wish for what appears to her to be a promised haute-bourgeois
identityover the repressed knowledge of her actual petit-bourgeois
identity.
Now aspiration has ceased to be a moral defect; it is instead the
very stuffof character. By the twentiethcentury,the pre-modern
logic of honor (the idea that innate virtue represented an a priori
social rank) is completelyreversedby a sort of petit-bourgeoisidealismwhichpositsthatmoral statureprecedes social stature,thatpeople
rise to power because theyare good. (In thisscheme,the existenceof
evil personsin prestigiouspositionsis seen as monstrous,a grosserror
in social functioning.)For the modern Cinderella,having aspirations
is a sign of character,and the possession of characterleads inevitably
to love and status. Unlike the Grimms'version, the Disney version
thematizesCinderella's dreaming,makinga close connectionbetween
this (non-)activityand Cinderella's much-toutedinnate goodness. In
the Disney version,merelythe factthatCinderella dreams is understood as sufficientcause for the fulfillment
of her dream (see Yolen
1982:303). What is mostirritatingabout the popular versionsof "Cinderella" is the way thatthe repressionof class consciousnessis correlated to innate goodness and the way thatdreaming (or non-activity)
is correlatedto a much-desiredend result-i.e., marriageto a prince.
The shock of Cinderella's sudden class transitionat the end of the
storyis amelioratedby the sense thatit is a just reward,a recognition
of a prior condition (her goodness) and a result of what the reader
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102
WESTERN FOLKLORE
must now presume to be a purposeful activity(her dreaming). By
making Cinderella's marriage an apparentlymoral victory,the story
manages to obscure its own socio-politicaldimensions: it gives the
impressionthatthe veryclass tensionswhichbroughtit intobeing are
only illusory,withoutteeth,and that theycan (and should) be overcome by virtuallyany erstwhileprotagonist.
In the Disney "Cinderella,"the dream of class transitionis virtually
inextricablefrom the dream of romanticlove. Indeed, Cinderella's
dream of love is primarilyconstitutedby her yearningfor freedom
fromservitudeand the equally importantdesire to be found worthy
of that freedom. Thus, Cinderella dreams not just of a man but of
Prince Charming.The love of Prince Charming is far more valuable
than the love of any other man because it releases her from the
necessityof work and, insofaras it selectsher fromamong so many,
it deems her adequately deservingof membershipin the leisureclass.
Only the love of a prince can heal all the class violence that poor,
toilingCinderella has experienced: his love is more than love; it is an
end to oppression.What'smore, to the extentthatit makes the prince
herservant,Cinderella's storyreversesthe usual (unjust) social hierarchy. Cinderella's marriage to the prince becomes a sort of social
payback,a public recompenseforthe traumaof her formersuffering.
Not surprisingly,the shiftfrom a genteel-bourgeoisto a petitbourgeois narrativeperspectiveis accompanied by the diminishment
of the powerfulmother'srole. Unlike the Grimms'version,in which,
as we have seen, the mother'srole is of paramount importance,the
Disney "Cinderella" trivializesthe motherfigure.The Disney version
lacks any referenceat all to the good motherand her death, and the
fairygodmotherwho appears in her place functionsas merelya magical wish-granter,like a genie. The rather abrupt appearance of the
fairygodmotherdoes not develop any of the story'smoral or thematic
needs; it works more or less as a mere plot mechanism,a way of
gettingCinderella to the ball so that she can meet and marrythe
prince.Because the mother/daughter
plot has been writtenout of the
the
lacks
moral
the
version,
Disney
story
depth, the politicalmotivation, and the psychologicalresonance that give the Grimms'version
shape and meaning.
This devaluationof the motherfigureand the diminishmentof the
bond is a necessarypart of the
importanceof the mother/daughter
of
"Cinderella."
the
Indeed,
"taming"
disempowermentof the mother
figureis necessaryto any patrilinealsystem.As Levy notes, "female
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GOING UP IN THE WORLD
103
sexual disorder" in the formof promiscuityand polyandryproduces
"uncertaintyof fatherhood" and so leads to "a systemof kinship
throughmothersonly"(1989:79). What makes patrilineagepossible is
"female choice"--specifically,the choice to be sexually faithfulto
one man in a recognized marriage. Thus, says Levy, the rise of the
middle class depends on the figureof the "orderlymother,"a woman
who practicessexual loyaltyto her husband and therebyensures "the
requisite degree of sexual stabilityand order necessaryfor the recognitionof patrilineage"(1989:80). Obviously,a woman who would
have politicalambitionsor who would seek to base marriage on anythingotherthan the affectionswould not onlybe outside the norm of
middle class womanhood but would be threateningto it. One can
imagine why,then, as bourgeois hegemony spreads, the politicized
team would be writtenout of the culture'stexts,and
mother/daughter
that any notion of female alliance for socio-politicalgain would become increasinglyuntenable and unrepresentablein literature.
The fact is that, in our world, the Grimms' Cinderella and her
motherare sexuallysuspect. They take too much power in the marriage game. Their politicalambition,not to mentiontheirmagic powers, puts them squarely in the realm of disorderlyfemale figures.
Modern "popularizations" and modern literarycriticismattemptto
neutralizethe power of these figures,each in itsown way.The Disney
"Cinderella" writesout the mother/daughter
plot, while much modern literarycriticismrepressesitby holdingto "authoritative"psychoanalyticparadigms. Both the dressingdown of the story(in popularized versions) and the dressing up of the story(in genteel literary
interpretations)share an unacknowledged agenda: they attemptto
bring the storyinto line withbourgeois needs and expectations.By
writingout or repressingevidence of a positive,politicallyeffective
mother/daughterbond-by misreading,if you will, the Cinderella
story-they participatein the spread of bourgeois hegemony. In so
doing, they camouflage exactlywhat is most troubling-and trueabout the story,its depiction of class ambitionsand class violence. If
we want to understand the ways in which class tensions shape our
social and personal realities,as well as the waysin whichwe use myths
both to deny and to (selectively)reveal those tensions,we mightstart
by reading the Grimms'"Cinderella" as an explorationinto what was
(and still is) a common cultural experience--i.e., class ascension/
descension throughmarriage.
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WESTERN FOLKLORE
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